Discoveries in Australia, Volume 2: Discoveries in Australia; with an Account of the Coasts and Rivers; Explored and Surveyed During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in The; Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43. By Command of the Lords Commissioners; Of the Admiralty. Also a Narrative of Captain Owen Stanley's Visits; To the Islands in the Arafura SeaStokes, John Lort
History
Discoveries in Australia, Volume 2: Discoveries in Australia; with an Account of the Coasts and Rivers; Explored and Surveyed During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in The; Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43. By Command of the Lords Commissioners; Of the Admiralty. Also a Narrative of Captain Owen Stanley's Visits; To the Islands in the Arafura Sea
Stokes, John Lort
Australia -- Description and travel; Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Natural history -- Australia
It was late before we could muster all our force; but we at length got
away, commandant and all. I was much pleased with the respect everyone
paid him, especially as he was one of those mild kind persons who require
very little. Soon after leaving the village we halted in a shady spot,
near a stream of water, some of our party being still missing. This gave
me a good opportunity of comparing the features of the Malay and Timoree,
for some of both were in attendance. The Malay has a much more open
countenance than the Timoree, but is not so handsome, the latter having a
more aquiline nose.
THE SHOOTING ARRANGEMENTS.
When they all arrived I counted fifty armed men. There were some whose
grey hairs proclaimed their lengthened years; though there was a keenness
in their eyes that revealed that the principle of vitality was strong
within them yet; in others all the dash and vigour of youth was
perceptible; many had a truly wild appearance, with their long bushy hair
and ever restless eye. It was a picturesque sight to behold fifty such
fine fellows scattered about in small groups in the deep shade of these
solitudes.
All the necessary arrangements being made, we once more started. An
hour's walk brought us to a rather large plain, where I and my companions
were stationed, about a hundred yards asunder, whilst the rest of the
party formed a circle, driving all the game in our direction.
Unfortunately those on the left commenced hallooing before those on the
right, in which latter direction the only three deer in the circle ran
from the noise, instead of towards us. Two of them were shot, and by the
stone bolts above mentioned. We now went to fresh ground, when, provoking
to say, the same thing happened again, not without our suspicions being
raised that this was purposely contrived; so that after all we were
obliged to leave without a single shot. Each deer, the largest of which,
a doe, must have weighed a hundred pounds, was shot STANDING, for the
natives have a peculiar cry, which arrests the animal's progress for a
moment, while they fire.
THE JAVANESE COMMANDANT.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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